Aerobic Exercise Guidelines

Aerobic or Cardio Exercise are those physical exercises that you can sustain for more than just a few minutes while your heart and muscles work overtime.

Meet these 6 guidelines that provide you with a good starting point for developing an effective aerobic exercise routine.

1) Frequency and Duration

The amount of aerobic exercise you should do depends on what your heart and fitness goals are. So, if your goal is better health and a decent level of cardiovascular fitness, then three 20-30 minute aerobic exercise workouts per week is a good general guideline to follow. But if your goal is to lose body fat, then you'll probably need to do more excessive cardio workouts per week.

2) Intensity

Wearing a heart rate monitor is the easiest and most accurate way to determine target heart rate and measure intensity to insure that you're training hard, your target heart rate should be between 60% and 85% of your maximum heart rate. Generally, 60-69% is considered low intensity, 70-79% for moderate intensity, and 80-85% for high intensity.

3) High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Studies have shown that HIIT three times a week that lasts 10 to 20 minutes, is a very effective way to lose body fat because it burns a lot of calories per minute, and it also have after burn effect, refers to how many additional calories your body will burn in order to recover and return back to the way it was before a workout took place.

4) Changing Workout Routines

You have to make periodic changes to your aerobic exercise routine, such as alternating between different types of exercises (e.g., treadmill one workout, elliptical machine another workout) or doing HIIT.

5) Warming Up and Cooling Down

Warming up your muscles prior to your workout will help prevent injury. And cooling down after your workout will slowly lower your heart rate and redirect blood flow back to normal. And both of them should be a few minutes of light aerobic exercise.

6) Stretching

Warm up first, then stretch. Or stretch after your workout. several studies have shown that stretching cold muscles slightly decreases muscle strength and power for up to an hour after stretching.